[Power of the Church] Power of the Government

I’ve discussed before on this blog, what the differences are between America Churchianity and British Churchianity. I can’t think of a better example of why separation of church and state is a good thing, a thing invented by Christians than this little gem by the perspicacious Martin Turner:

“Richard Dawkins’s followers will no doubt be quick to claim this is another example of the heinous effect of ‘the God delusion’. But they would be wrong. Under charity law, the Church of England has to diligently pursue all of its debtors, and, coupled with the laws on ‘chancel repair liability’ which date back to Valor Ecclesiasticus in 1535, they have no choice.

<snip>

What lunatic changed the law in that way? (You know the answer to this one, but, in case you don’t, the legislation is the Land Registration Act 2002.)

Since the Church of England is powerless to extricate itself from a situation which bankrupts ordinary people and brings the church, and thus the entire Christian faith, into disrepute, the government ought to have intervened to simply cancel chancel liability. This would free the Church of England to pursue grants and even Lottery money. This is in fact what the Law Commission and the Church of England Synod recommended in the 1980s.”

At the time when this hit the headlines I was not aware of these facts. I’m glad I reserved my judgement.

[Economy] It’s The Interest Rates Stupid!

Says it all really.

7 Reasons Why Banks Should Increase Interest Rates

interest rates, stupid economy, banks, bwankers, finance, debt, gordon clown, capitalism, properdee

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[Economic Meltdown] Flash… Aah Aah He’ll Screw Everyone Of Us

Overheard at a desk in a major investment bank today:

“This MP basically said that they’re creating an inflationary environment… 15% interest rates, not this year, but over the next 3 years”

Make of it what you will, personally it tells me that everyone in the know is aware of what is coming next and what is needed, but for some reason Flash Gordon and Alistair Darling are out of the loop or didn’t get the memo. It’s also becoming clear that Flash is intending to pull a Zimbabwe and start printing money (he calls this “quantitative easing” – which is another fancy financial bullshit term for printing money).

You see there is only two ways out of a recession, inflation or raising interest rates. You should know what happens when the government uses inflation, it’s been done before by the Weimar Republic and more recently Zanu-PF.

But what about the other tool, interest rates? Well, you see, this would cause millions of feckless, leveraged, mewing borrowers to realise the difference between debt and wealth – can’t have that, or can we?

The fact is we’re dangerously close to the edge of falling into hyperinflation and while its difficult to predict how disastrous this would be we do know that fixed loans would be eroded away, but so would the value of GBP, the value of any savings and investments too (you know, the things used to fund borrowing) – basically our ecomony would become worthless and most likely we’d all end up informally adopting the Euro.

So why does Flash want to print money? There can only be one of three conclusions, either he…

• Has lost all sense of reality, delusional, thinking he is the saviour of the world
• Is incompetent. He has no clue what he is doing, no clue how to manage an economy and has sat on top of the biggest economic bubble in the history of the world, taking credit for something he had no part in. Or…
• Has engineered this, in part, on purpose. The most far reaching conclusion however I can’t help but wonder if he was hoping for a bust sooner, so that it would damage Bliar (and oust him out of office), or even, guessing (or feeling) he will lose an election soon, hoping to pass the bubble on to the Tories just before it burst (securing a short term for them, allowing him to be elected back into power at the next election). Far reaching but not inconceivable – considering all the warnings he has ignored over the 10 years he was Chancellor.

Whatever the reasons for his contempt of savers, the UK economy and the poor, all his actions are delaying the inevitable (and making it worse)… depression and potentially more civil unrest.

[Target Culture] The Processed Life

This Post Is Rated: N for Nothing to hide… yada yada. Warning: More commentary on our total lack of discretion and humanity in today’s culture.

I’m aware that I’m going to reference another ‘old’ news item now but I’m just catching up with some of my saved rss feeds and occasionally I come across an item that is worth my comment but I’m too busy to compile something at the time.

Last month the BBC reported that, now, even the police are fed up of the target culture.

The list of compiled cases showed incidents where officers had been “under such pressure to deliver it has resulted in an arrest or caution when even the officer themselves thinks it is ludicrous”, he said.
“Understandably, when the public hears about this they ask ‘What the hell is going on?’.”

Of course those who read police bloggers will not be surprised, but what people should be realising is that it’s part of a much wider cultural endemic that has been going on for some time.

We no longer know how to relate as human beings. We may even empathise with our victims customers’ personal situation, in the knowledge that we are making decisions that will deeply affect their circumstances, but there seems to be no will to to try and break the cogs of this giant machinery that is called ‘authorisation’.

How many times have you heard the words to the effect of “Yes, I understand, but I’m sorry sir I cannot do that as I don’t have the authorisation” or “I’m sorry I have to process this now, I can’t stop it”. What they actually mean is:

“I can stop it, but if something goes wrong, it will be my head on the block, or I am financially disincentivised to do anything to help you”.

I’m glad the police are concerned, we should all be. We are moving towards, nay, already in a society that sees people as assets to be put in boxes and processed. If someone doesn’t fit into the box, discard them or fail them. Why should we be concerned? Let me give you an example from my own life,

You may already be aware of the trouble I had with TalkTalk at the beginning of the year. I ended up cancelling their contract to go with Pipex in February. Today I received the 3rd ‘Final Demand’ for money on an account that should have been closed 4 months ago (2 phone calls, 1 letter). This is no longer a human looking at the details and realising the error of their ways, this is a machine, that has not been given the right instruction and without intervention, followed through to logical conclusion will pass this onto a debt collection service.

I don’t trust those who currently stand for authority, not until I can see an example of a person or organization who can utilise technology responsibly, and not rely on it to cost cut human decisions over human lives.

To slightly modify an old mantra used on this site:

Databases exist to for people, people do not exist for databases.

Technorati Tags: checkbox culture, database culture, big brother, predatory systems, customer service, target culture

[Bwankers] Account-ability Advice for Banks

Most blogs we’re so busy discussing the budget last week they missed the BBC’s undercover whistleblower program exposing underhand standard business practices by Barclays Bank. (Barclays was the focus, just like McDonalds was with fast food. And just like Burger King to McDonalds, you can bank on the rest of the industry using the same business ethic).

“A nine-month investigation by BBC reporters working undercover in a leading British bank has revealed a culture of ruthlessness and lies which will shock their customers.” – BBC Whistleblower

Undercover reporter Amanda Egbujo went undercover as an employee of Barclays for 9 months. In that time she witnessed common practices such as:

• Treating customers with contempt (particularly those who struggled paying/complained about unlawful charges)
• Lying – illegally claiming to be Account Consultants rather than Sales Monkeys
• Moving money from accounts – without authority – to gain commission
• Adding financial products to customer accounts without knowledge- for a monthly charge
• Refusing customers products they require, but then offering a financial product they do not need.
• Staff employed with no criminal background checks
• Fraud accounts set up with relative ease

I asserted this was not just Barclays, and I have my own experience with HSBC, when they decided to cancel my Graduate 0% Interest Overdraft (which stood over £1000), then reinstate the overdraft a year later at a standard 15% interest. This case is currently with the small claims court.

Indeed this week Halifax had to issue an apology for stolen mortgage details. Unlike average joe who has £20-£35 penalties automatically deducted at the end of the month for going over agreed limits, Halifax is given plenty of time to get their act together by the FSA.

I’ve said this before, it’s not legal, it’s not business, it’s immoral and indefensible.

As a Christian, I believe that these corrupt financial institutions will one day have to answer to God:

“If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help. In a lawsuit, you must not deny justice to the poor.” – Exodus 23:5-6

“But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve. Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. At midlife they will lose their riches; in the end, they will become poor old fools.” – Jeremiah 17:10-11

“How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them. For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.” – Amos 5:10-12

[Elite] Rich Benefits

I’m not in the least surprised by this little item, it’s pretty much elementary.

I’m not an economist (so feel free to correct me if you have a valid counter-argument), but the truth of the matter is that taxes rarely affect the rich or the Corporati. I don’t need to explain this because our PM has already done so in a recent interview on Newsnight:

[Bailiffs] Thieves Want More Power

Read my previous post about bailiffs

A few months ago I blogged a news story from the BBC about unscrupulous bailiffs criminals and the lengths they will go to collect debts extort money from their victims.

Now read this

Now, who is going to be the first to do this?

[Takeback] The Public 1 HSBC 0

It’s about time one of the Dragons finally had their teeth knocked out and the smile wiped off it’s face.

If you have been reading the MSM and considering whether you should take a shot yourself, join the millions who have already have.

If you need to know where to start, try these links:

MoneySavingExpert
BBC How To
This is Money
Consumer Action Group Forums
Times Online

and you can get more by googling “claim back unfair charges”.

Do it… Now!

[Even The BBC Are Getting In On The Act] EVERYONE SHOULD DO THIS… RIGHT NOW!

If you own a UK bank account- even the BBC are publishing it: How to claim back penalty charges.

[Financial Terrorism] Banks Behaving Badly

I really want to go into topics like this in detail, alas, time is not on my side. So check this article instead and open your eyes to the everyday evils:

Banks Behaving Badly

Edited to include:

What Financial Firms Think About You
Your Credit Cards Need £1 Billion!

Make no mistake, banks are profit-geared organisations. They look after your money, just like a crocodile would look after your livestock.

Of course, in the western world we are now forced to hire crocodiles to run our farms, since it is very difficult to achieve anything without a bank account. We need a revolution, or politicians with balls.

Anyway just be aware of who your dealing with- a bank managers priorities are in this order:
1. Christmas Bonus
2. Profit
3. Shareholders
4. Big money clients
5. Your savings account

The old saying rings true, “A bank manager loans you an umbrella whilst the sun is shining, and takes it back when it starts raining.”